Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/269

Rh mere symbolic representation of Turkish authority; the Greeks rule. Such is the case at Patmos, which is an island full of monks and pirates. My first step in landing in this den of thieves was to call upon the only representative of consular authority in the place, an old Hellenic consular agent, who had given information at Rhodes about the barratry. The poor man was overjoyed to see me, and declared that he never ventured to stir out of his house for fear of being assassinated on account of having denounced certain Patmiotes, a statement the truth of which I had no means of ascertaining, though such is the condition of some of these islands that it is not improbable. On my telling him that I had a letter from the Governor to the Demarchia, he begged me, instead of calling on the Mudir as I had proposed, to remain in his own house and summon the Demarcliia into my presence there and hear the Pasha's letter. I thought, as Hotspur thought of Owen Glendower's spirits, "but will they come?" However, I despatched my cavass from the port to the town, and summoned them in unperious style. Rather to my surprise they all came through a broiling June sun. I presented the Pasha's letter; it was read; the Mudir gave a start, and turned a little pale when he heard the mandate; the Greeks preserved that perfect self-possession which distinguishes this race when some great occasion calls forth their enormous capacity for lying. When the letter was finished, the Mudir said never a word; but one of the Primates, a smooth-tongued gentleman, at once